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Kraven the Hunter trailer confirms Spider-Man villain

alessandro nivola
Kraven the Hunter trailer sees Spider-Man villainTheo Wargo - Getty Images

Sony's Spider-Verse is set to expand with the upcoming release of Kraven the Hunter, which puts Aaron Taylor-Johnson front and centre as Russian villain Sergei Kravinoff.

According to Collider, Sony finally unveiled some footage from the R-rated film at CinemaCon 2023, revealing that Alessandro Nivola will play another Spider-Man villain and Kraven's main threat, Rhino.

Rhino is one of Spider-Man's earliest villains, having debuted in an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man back in 1966. He was last portrayed onscreen by Paul Giamatti in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Related: Spider-Man: No Way Home almost featured a totally different villain

The character began his criminal career as a low-level Russian thug named Aleksei Sytsevich, though he later agreed to have a suit made of near-unstoppable battle armour grafted to his skin.

Speaking about his role last year (without giving away who he was playing), Nivola told The Hollywood Reporter: "I only transform, physically, in the final moments of the movie, so it’s just a classic villain role.

"It had a really interesting, complex psychology and personal history to draw on, and the movie has a time jump in it, so the character changes a lot from the way he is in the beginning of the film. It was as much of an acting opportunity as any other film I’ve done."

alessandro nivola
Jamie McCarthy - Getty Images

Related: Across the Spider-Verse theory suggests dark Spider-Man twist

Last year, it was confirmed that Christopher Abbott (Girls) will play The Foreigner, who is able to place his opponents under a 10-second state of hypnosis via eye contact.

Fred Hechinger (Pam & Tommy) has signed on to play the title character's brother The Chameleon and Russell Crowe (Gladiator) will play Kraven's father, Nikolai Kravinoff.

Meanwhile, Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) is set to star as voodoo priestess Calypso, who has an on-and-off relationship with Kraven.

Kraven the Hunter arrives in cinemas on October 6, 2023.

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